Surface Scratchers

Surface Scratchers

By Ronny JacobEducation
Download on the App Store

Surface Scratchers episodes

  • Surface Scratchers Ep30 - Domestic Migration

    Migration is now a series! In this episode, Sawant & Ronny discuss domestic migration in India - the numbers, causes, and stories of a few districts that are particularly known for migration - Ratnagiri, MH;  Ganjam, OD; Udupi, KA etc.

    Show notes

    Episode 1 of the migration series (Indentured labour) | Causes of migration according to the Census 2011 | Chinmay Tumbe's book, India Moving - the inspiration and source for most of this podcast (Goodreads) | Channels of Internal Migration in India: A Historical Perspective (paper) | Internal migration in India: Why, Where, How much (article1, article2)  | Internal Migration in India: Integrating Migration with Development and Urbanization Policies (paper)  | 

    39 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep29 - Quotable Quotes - I have a dream (MLK)

    Surface Scratchers launches a new series! In this one, Sawant & Ronny breakdown a famous speech or quote - and look at the history & events leading up to it, the person behind the quote and its legacy.

    This episode is about Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a Dream speech. We discuss the history of slavery, the emancipation proclamation, civil rights movement, the life of MLK and the legacy of the speech.

    Shownotes:

    The speech, a short version (YouTube), the speech in its entirety (NPR) | A video essay on how MLK composed the speech (The Nerdwriter, YouTube) | Tim Harford's Cautionary Tales podcast episode - (Website, Spotify) | Emmylou Harris' song My Name is Emmett Till (YouTube)

    31 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep28 - Migration: The Indian Diaspora

    We launch a new series, looking at migration out of India - indentured labour & Indians in East Africa

    Shownotes

    Chinmay Tumbe's, India Moving - the book that inspired this series | Charles Darwin in Mauritius (Article) | The Last King of Scotland (Hotstar) | Documentary - Asian Expulsion (Youtube)

    30 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep27 - Dance feat. Uthara

    New resident expert, Uthara Padmanabhan, joins us for this episode on Dance!

    Shownotes:

    The role of music in helping building society for early humans (BBC)| Biological origins of music and dance (Article) | The Dragon Dance (YouTube) | The longest Chinese Dragon in 2012 - (YouTube) | The Whirling Dervish (YouTube) | A Brief History of the ‘Danse Macabre’ (Atlas Obscura) | How the beating retreat routine inspired It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (YouTube) | The evolution of dance (YouTube) | Dougie feat. Bhangra makes the best TikTok trends! (YouTube) 

    38 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep26 - Drag Culture feat. Anamika
    In a first for us, we welcome a guest! Join us as we learn all there is about Drag Culture, from a Surface Scratchers certified expert, Anamika!
    Shownotes:
    Drag perhaps started in Shakespearean theater. We couldn't find a video, so here's a scene from Shakespeare in Love (YouTube) | Vaudeville - The YouTube of the early 20th century, and an avenue for people to perform in Drag | William Dorsey Swann - The First Drag Queen who was a Former Slave (BBC, Medium) | Protests that set the stage for Stonewall (Vice, NPR) | How Judy Garland became a gay icon (BBC, Irish Times) | A few fun segments from RuPaul's Drag Race - A Drag Ball (theme: Bag ball); Reading Queens; Snatch Game | A handy Drag Dictionary | Meet India's most popular drag queens (Homegrown) | Dragvanti, a website for everything you need to know about drag culture in India (and an article)
    38 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep25: AMA (or AUA - Ask Us Anything!)

    Sawant and Ronny celebrate a milestone. Cheers. Also, listener questions are answered.

    Shownotes:

    Books mentioned in the podcast: Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall; India Moving by Chinmay Tumbe; Akbar, Daughters of the Sun by Ira Mukhoty; Jahangir by Parvati Sharma; Shah Jahan by Fergus Nicoll; William Dalrymple's books; Tom Clancy's books.

    Shows: MasterChef Australia, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Sharp Objects, Schitt's Creek, Jack Ryan

    Podcasts: The Origin of Things and Getting Meta by Chuck Gopal; The Seen and the Unseen by Amit Varma; The History of India by Kit Patrick; Echoes of India by Anirudh Kanisetti

    Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell; Reply All; Arseblog; The Anthropocene reviewed by John Green; Cautionary tales by Tim Harford; Against the Rules by Michael Lewis

    If you, like us, don't know much about personal finance, do check out our friend Jai Banga's YouTube channel to become slightly smarter (and richer)

    36 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep24 - Indian states & cities

    Discover how Indian cities and states got their names

    ShowNotes:

    People after whom Indian villages are named after [Indian Express] | A handy guide with Indian-place-name-suffixes | McCluskieGanj: an old NDTV report, some beautiful drone shots | Digboi, its toponomy and oil [Article] | Indian city names abroad [Article] 

    27 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep23: Olympics

    It's Olympics season, learn all about it here!

    Show notes:

    The USSR, amaeteurism and Ice Hockey [Article] | | The Medals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics [YouTube] | The different types of Fencing, explained [YouTube, Vox] | race walking, explained [YouTube, Vox] | Simone Biles doing the impossible [YouTube]| Madison cycling gets is name from MSG. Not that MSG, but the stadium [YouTube]

    29 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep22: GDP
    Surface Scratchers turns into Econ Scratchers with us de-mystifying the number every economist and country cares most about - GDP
    Show notes
    Crash course - English Civil war [YouTube] | William Petty did a lot more than just survey Ireland [Wikipedia] | Kuznets' on GDP [Paper] | Arvind Subramanian: India's GDP Mis-estimation [Paper] | A short history of the Indian Economy 1947-2019 [Article]
    28 min
  • Surface Scratchers Ep 21: Corporate Spotlight - RedBull & Coca-Cola

    In the second episode in the Origins series, learn about the origins of RedBull and Coca-Cola. 

    Shownotes:

    SS epi on the Origins of McDonald's (Spotify) | A Twitter thread on the origins of RedBull | RedBull's company profile | The Red Bull sporting dynasty (article) |  Mexican coke - a lie, apparently , a taste test (YouTube) | Where they drink 2L of Coke a day (YouTube) | Our favourite ads - Aamir Khan's coke ad, A collection of RedBull-giving-wings cartoons | Pemberton was born in Rome, Georgia, USA. The USA is filled with such cities (a relevant XKCD) | The YouTube video Sawant does not want us to watch

    29 min

About Surface Scratchers

From the publisher's feed

Sawant and Ronny scratch the surface of some topics. PSA: Research is earnest, but often half-done.